Data Center Firm Expects to Halve Energy Cost by Recycling Heat

Modern data centers don’t need to be in the middle of nowhere. New approaches to cooling and to building architecture are making urban locations attractive, especially in countries where low-cost renewable energy is plentiful.

That’s the approach Multigrid is taking with its recently announced 5MW site in Stockholm’s new Data Park, in Kista Science City. We spoke to its CEO, Mattias Ganslandt, about the company’s approach to data center design and how it’s taking advantage of the city’s central heat infrastructure to significantly reduce power costs – dropping the cost of running the facility below what the Nordic region’s abundant hydro and wind power already deliver.

The recently completed design uses the typical hot-aisle containment approach and circulates hot air through heat exchangers, but instead of using the cold outside air for cooling (as one would think any data center in the Nordics would), Multigrid wants to take advantage of the demand for comfort heating in homes and offices, using the heat exchangers to warm up water for the city’s district energy system. “The greatest advantage of the Nordics is not that the air is cold but that there is a high value on heating,” Ganslandt said. “That puts a value to something that would otherwise be a cost.”